Mō‘ili‘ili

When PhotonWorks Engineering began construction at McCully and Algaroba streets, they surrounded the site with a temporary wooden wall. Instead of leaving it plain and vulnerable to graffiti, founder Tim Johnsson and senior project manager Jeff Lang invited local artists to turn it into a mural stretching 250 feet. Two artist groups answered the call. The One Little “Island” Artist Collective made up of Ann Haugum, Jessica Lynn Fowler, Deanna Gabiga, and Chloe Tomomi suggested a vibrant scene of ocean waves and pink trees. Meanwhile, artists Adair Hill, Eric Strauss, and StoreKeeper proposed a design of interlocking lizards inspired by M.C. Escher’s “Reptiles.” The lizard motif was also fitting for the area’s name, Mō‘ili‘ili, which traces back to a Hawaiian legend about Hi‘iaka, the sister of the volcano goddess Pele, who defeated a giant lizard and turned it into stones buried beneath a tree near Kūhiō Elementary School.

Johnsson and Lang liked both ideas so much that they asked the artists to combine them, landscape on one side, lizards on the other. But trouble struck on the first day of painting. While one artist went to grab a new can of paint, thieves drove up and stole the generator powering their airbrush. StoreKeeper tried to stop them, even grabbing the handle as the van sped off, but the thieves got away. That night, the site was hit again, this time, the compressor, saws, drills, and all the artists’ tools were stolen.

Despite the rough start, the community rallied. Hawaiian Rent-All, which owned the stolen generator, waived the replacement cost and returned the artist’s deposit. PhotonWorks stepped in to replace all the lost tools and supplies, including new art equipment for StoreKeeper. According to Hill, he was so moved he “felt like a kid on Christmas” seeing the replacements.